Voters who believe in democracy, a free press & a public education committed to honest inquiry & intellectual integrity must also step up and let their reps how important these things are to them…
Free press: the FCC(Federal Communications Commission) announces that it’s launching the preliminary process of stripping FOX News of its broadcasting license in Philadelphia over its pushing of Trump’s Big Lie.
Other Fox stations could be investigated. Also, Nextstar, the largest television station owner in the United States, owning 197 television stations. Sinclair, the second-largest television station operator in the United States by number of stations (after Nexstar), owning or operating a total of 193 stations across the country in over 100 markets (covering 40% of American households) and is the largest owner of stations affiliated with Fox, NBC, CBS, ABC, MyNetworkTV, and The CW.
Broadcasters are responsible for selecting the broadcast material that airs on their stations, including advertisements. The FCC expects broadcasters to be responsible to the community they serve and act with reasonable care to ensure that advertisements aired on their stations are not false or misleading.
The FTC has primary responsibility for determining whether specific advertising is false or misleading, and for taking action against the sponsors of such material.
Also Dominion v Fox should be an object lesson for all broadcasters. Garland is not going to bring a criminal action for aiding, abetting and giving comfort to the insurrection, but I can't understand why the police officers and others damaged don't add Fox and others in civil cases.
In a civil case, the standard is a preponderance of the evidence. Was Fox (or others) responsible for defendants acting out and injuring the plaintiffs in the January 6 lawsuits?
Maybe Thom can ask Eric Swalwell and other plaintiffs.
The reason that cops, of all kinds, including Capitol Police, are by an large conservatives, and that means Trump Humpers. Officer Fallone who died, voted for Trump. The secret service, FBI and DOJ are conservatives, and I assume that in their minds, the real enemy are "liberals".
The estate of Brian Sicknick, a Capitol Police officer who died after responding to the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol, is suing two rioters involved in the attack and Trump for his alleged role in egging it on.
Fanone is alive. It's true he voted for Trump.
In addition, DC AG Racine filed a civil lawsuit against to hold the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, and their leaders and members accountable for their actions in planning and carrying out the January 6, 2021 attack and violating federal and District laws.
Sicknick also voted for Trump. Too many J6 personnel. failing memory can't hold them all. I probably remember Fallone because he said he would vote for Trump again.
Thanks for the correction. I have an excuse, my age and a craniotomy to remove a cancerous tumor (Oct 2017) that and the radiation has messed with my retention of stuff like names, and dates so I use google extensively. Should have used google this time.
What about Cox, communications. I use Dish for TV (no choice that or Direct TV, and no way Direct TV.
Cox cut their local channel feeds to Dish, because Dish would not be blackmailed into paying $1 billion for TV that was over the air (free) but needed to be relayed to a satellite, and evidently they acquired a spotbeam on a satellite.
The $1 billion cost will of course be passed on to consumers. like me.
Daniel, much appreciate you sharing the "Free Press" story about FCC process. I had not seen this and I will make sources including Medium and Democratic Underground, part of my regular reading and sharing. "Truth and lies, light and darkness, cannot co-exist". Fox has admitted in court they were telling known falsehoods regarding Trump's Big Lie of the 2020 election being stolen and the corruption of the Dominion voting machines. And yet this was never revealed to their rabid listeners, most of whom still believe Fox et al believes the Big Lie. Part of the Dominion settlement absolutely should have included significant required air-time countermanding their prior claims of a stolen election and admitting that they knew this was false information at the time they promoted these claims, as a requirement of them being able to continue broadcasting in the U.S. Now, finally, they may be held to account for their treasonous propaganda that has materially helped drive a major political rift between the American people. Hopefully this will be the beginning of a national cleansing of Fox propaganda across the country but better than losing their broadcast license would be the required counter propaganda message as noted above. This might actually serve to 'cleanse' the political ranks as the MAGA masses realize they have, and are, being systematically lied to by both rightwing media and the rightwing self serving politicians. Good riddance!
You mention 3 main pillars of a democratic republic; I think there are more than that. Two you don't mention, but which are fundamental, are a belief in the value of institutions (like Congress), and confidence that justice is for everyone, and can't be bought or manipulated. These two are front and center right now as they're both under attack, straight out of Putin's playbook (or the playbook of any autocrat, for that matter). The Repubs are destroying Americans confidence in Congress, and Trump continues to assault the justice system; he's doing to it what he did to the office of presidency, riddling it with doubts. I've said this before, but it bears saying again: "Catch us the foxes, the little foxes that spoil the vines, for our vines have tender grapes..." (Song of Solomon 2:15). That's your dilemma in the U.S. now - you've got Putin's henchmen riddling everything your people have cultivated for years, being destroyed by the "little foxes" of lies and doubts.
I ask that if you wish to insert your own opinions into one of Thom's articles Don't do it by starting with a negative, such as "Two you don't mention"
Personally I don't see how belief in the value of institutions like Congress, and confidence that justice is for everyone fits into the there core pillars" The three core pillars that hold up democratic republics are a vibrant and free press, trustworthy electoral systems, and academic independence..
Thom's three core pillars, are things (the press, electoral system and academic independence, where your two things are beliefs and values.., not pillars, a fourth pillar would be a fair and equal justice system. Lots of luck on that one, from the Hanging Judge of Ft Smith, Arkansas, Charles Parker to Aileen Cannon and Merrick Garland.
Belief, however is not a pillar of anything, except religions.
With absolutely no certainty.... I think this country has everything in place to step directly into fascism. The presence of the strongman leader waiting in the wings and the profusion of firearms in the hands of people who hold him dearer than the institutions of constitutional government could easily let it happen within the next few years. If he is the Republican nominee, I'd say it's a sure thing, whether or not he wins the 2024 election.
It is almost all about money, power and fame. The right is trying to steal everything and play God at the same time, thanks too unlimited greed or capitalism to make this possible. As Thom has said many times, the rich don't want to pay their fair share in taxes. The poor GOP incel males need to rape in order to lose their virginity also. Pollution and global overpopulation and global warming and the reality that the right wingers are just insane lying idiots, will destroy the human race to a mass of suffering lunatics, while their supernatural phony gods will not come back and save them. In their infinite wisdom, the GOP voters will make things go from bad to worse, fascism can never be stopped without a maximum wage. And humans cannot evolve if their needs are not met.
In 2001, Grover Norquist (lapdog of the Reagan kleptocracy) made an astoundingly candid and violent declaration of intent:
"I'm not in favor of abolishing the government. I just want to shrink it down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub."
This is just one example of why it is so important we believe people (or organizations) when they tell us who they are. The far right has been figuratively (and sometimes literally) shouting their agenda for decades. Currently, democracy seems more and more like an inmate on death row, without a court in the land willing to hear an appeal (thanks, Leonard Leo). Had we simply heeded the verbal intent of the executioner, perhaps things wouldn't be so dire - but here we are.
Democracy is the earth upon which our aspirations as a people are footed. Without it, none of our ideals can germinate, much less flourish. I believe we need to soberly reassess the health of, and restore our "virtual Earth" - democracy - as priority number one. I don't think many, if any of our better tendencies can take root in the current political ecosystem we inhabit. In short, I believe it is all hands on deck to save our democratic republic - and fast.
I remember Thom saying (sometime in the mid-2000's?) "movement politics" were historically the catalyst of change in society. But what if the movement needed is to preserve democracy itself - the ground upon which all other movements are made possible?
Our press, all but a handful of independents is owned by corporations, which control the (interlocking) boards of directors, who hire and fire CEO's. COO's, CFO's, who in turn hire and fire editors and producers. who know what they are suppose to do and what they are suppose to repress.
As for free speech, it is a myth. The 1st Amendment says nothing about free speech, all it says is that Congress shall pass no laws.
Your writing plus that of Timothy Snyder (The Road to Unfreedom) should be required reading in high school and college right now.
I’m so thankful for your voice as well as Heather Cox Richardson, Rachel Maddow, The Politics Girl Leigh McGowan, Michael Tyler Cohen, Robert Reich and so many more using whatever media possible to spread the truth.
And your words are being turned into action... many of us are calling, writing, voting and doing all we can to save Democracy.
I use to support, financially, the Intercept, still get their news letters, but stopped when I discovered Noam Chomsky, the DSA, the Intercept and Democracy Now, obliquely supported Putin, and now they support HAMAS and Islamic terrorists. Democracy Now, has a number of Palestinian Americans on their staff.
Even hosts on MSNBC, Mehdi Hasan, Ayman Mohyeldin, and Ali Velshi were “quietly taken out of the anchor’s chair" following Hamas' operation on Israel.
I saw Ayman on TV yesterday, saying that HAMAS is not antisemitic, and his show distorts facts on the ground, and all of them pounced on the lie that Israel bombed a hospital.
As regards the Antisemitism of HAMAS
Article 7 of the HAMAS convention is quoted from the haddith of al Bukhari, sahih 1295 and 1296, Book 56, Haddith 193
"The Day of Judgment will not come about until Moslems fight Jews and kill them. Then, the Jews will hide behind rocks and trees, and the rocks and trees will cry out: 'O Moslem, there is a Jew hiding behind me, come and kill him."
Ayman had the balls to say, on TV, that HAMAS was not antisemitic.
The HAMAS charter says:
"The Islamic Resistance Movement is a distinguished Palestinian movement, whose allegiance is to Allah, and whose way of life is Islam. It strives to raise the banner of Allah over every inch of Palestine." (Article 6)
On the destruction of Israel:
"Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it." (Preamble)
My opinion is that Islamic Jihad was using the parking lot of the Al Ahli Arab Hospital, to launch rockets and there was a misfire, that killed the terrorists, and did some damage to the facade, but did not kill patients. And of course HAMAS lies, anyone believes their lies, is a sucker and fool, or a disinfo agent.
I first read about Axel Springer in Politico Europe, so the Intercept may have picked up from them. I read the Intercept from time to time depending on the article, and the Volt, the Lever, ProPublica, and other publications which I do not support all of the positions they take because I want to know what those positions are. I certainly don't support the positions of the NYT but must pay to read them, and the same with the WaPo. There is no publication where I support all of their positions. Reading is not the same as supporting.
Agreed Linda, reading is not supporting. I do not get all of those "publications" (what do you call digital publications anyway? But I do read what I get, like the Intercept. By support I mean donating cash.
NYT and WAPO have two departments, and often they seem at war. The editorial department which is conservative to right wing and the news department, which is a little better, but still has editors who squash news, or decide what is news. Like when NYT championed the invasion of Iraq.
What bothers me is the utter willingness to believe propaganda (so called news like the misfire of a rocket by Islamic Jihad at Al Ihla Arab Hospital in Gaza and attribute it to an Israeli Bomb, stuff like that
Hi William, I support a lot of the things I read, but not everything. The things that I skip more than I read I do not support. However, I should be supporting more of them.
I subject everything I read to scrutiny and try to use the one facility that I have not yet lost.
Critical reasoning.
Not bragging, though it might sound like it. I've been an avid reader since I picked up my first Alphabet book, as far as I can recall the age of 5, by age of 8 I was reading the Odyssey by Homer, the Bible by age 12, my tastes are eclectic, and aside for about 150 classics, hardly any are fiction. I certainly don't read fiction today.
By and large, even non fiction is actually stilted by peoples beliefs, so I approach everything with caution, and try to filter out fact from belief or opinion. One tool to use is who benefits (cuo bono), but I have my own gold mineof information, 84 years having to cipher the truth from the constant barrage of propaganda.
When I was young, and inexperienced, and even though well read, was still quite ignorant. I was an anti communist conservative, over time my conservatism expanded, beyond my anti communism shameful depths.
It was only a series of circumstances that resulted in my relocation, and found myself in company of old hippies, ex SDS, even weather underground, and as a shop foreman, I found myself enjoying, along with 10 other union offices, the compay of Angela Davis at a lunch.
The result is that I question everything, even those with whom I otherwise agree. For instance I stand for diversity, equality, civil and voting rights, and anti bigotry, but as of late I am sad to report that the Democratic Socialists of America, and many leftists, are solidly in lock step with Putin, Xi and the mid east terrorists, even secular Jews.
I may like to look at the Pie, I may even nibble, but I'll be damned if I will eat the whole thing, and am certainly not a joiner or entrapped, cajoled by those who try to use my sentiments, to steer me in an anti Democratic agenda. Such as the troll farms of Russia and China, and they don't have to be troll farms, there are legions of gullible non thinking people who are easily triggered to advance a cause inimical to their own best interests.
The right wing is an obvious example, but it appears that they have companions on the left.
It is not possible to have a democracy in the face of oligarchy and perpetual war. When both political parties are working for special interests, and when Democrats are appointing their presidential nominees which they have for several cycles now and continue to do, we should not fool ourselves. Biden continues to talk about Israel as a democracy while it's a theocracy and supplies autocracies around the world with weapons of war. We are not saving democracy, we are saving an imperialist oligarchy that dehumanizes large swaths of the population in favor of perceived geopolitical and economic advantage, and while it is easy to blame Republican malfeasance for our woes their hijinx are a symptom of the tribal nature of our politics and our loss of journalistic integrity, not to mention our sacrifice of humanity in the interest of electoral politics.
When I last looked we are US citizens and 30 of our countrymen were murdered and 11 more are unaccounted for most probably in Gaza. US policy has been land for peace since 1967. On paper, Israel has the same.
Why did the October 7 pogrom happen? Because Hamas wants to undermine peace negotiations between Israel and other Arab countries. Peace is Hamas' WATNA. .
Israeli Arabs have greater civil rights than citizens in any Arab country. They and Christians and others are free to worship. I personally do not like the Likud history or their philosophy, but they cannot dictate their philosophy. I am personally offended that ultraorthodox Jews are exempt from military service.
I've been advocating that Arabs form a peace corps, should go to Gaza. Save innocents. But the Arab leaders generally hate Hamas more than Israel.
According to estimates from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, more than 600,000 people have been killed since the start of the war. In its 2023 Global Appeal, the UN reported that more than 6.9 million are currently internally displaced, with more than 5.4 million living as refugees abroad. Where are the demonstrations at every Syrian embassy?
How many Arabs or Muslims must be murdered before there are global demonstrations against that regime?
Hmmmm.. what's missing here is that Israel has been illegally occupying land AND committing crimes against humanity against its occupants for decades. That is the real issue. If Israel would retract its illegal settlements and offer a land compromise, as well as returning the hundreds if not thousands of Palestinians children and men it holds prisoner without cause, that would be a major step towards peace in the region. Leaders of Hamas who have been ostracized by American press during their interviews have repeatedly stated they want return of the prisoners and their land, all the while the terrorist government of Israel is portrayed as the victim and Biden hugs the Trump of Israel Netanyahu. Let's be clear--it is Isreal who stole the land of the Palestinian people and then punished them for it. Israel is the oppressor, they have all the power, the Palestinians are the oppressed, they have none. The US does the dirty work of Israel as proven by the first legislation passed under Trump's Congress, anti-free speech legislation favoring Israel in this country some label as a democracy. https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/04/23/us-states-use-anti-boycott-laws-punish-responsible-businesses
Get your facts straight, before you spread lies and disinfo
Theodore Herzl, the father of Zionism, and his group of volunteers, purchased land from the Arabs, the Bedouins that call themselves Palestine after WWI, they turned a barren land, into green, constructed homes, Kibbutz, and the land prospered.
Their Muslim neighbors looked upon their success with envy and anger. Anger because the Jews showed the paucity and stagnation of their own culture.
So in 1948, their Arab neighbors launched a war to drive out the Jews, the Brits when they left the area, disabled their planes and tanks, and destroyed their ammunition.
The Israel's were able with ingenuity, repair the disabled planes and equipment and ordered lipstick tubes with they re-manufactured into bullets.
And they drove out the Muslim invaders, and in so doing took the land, (to the victor goes the spoils, and they needed the land to provide a barrier against their neighbors, the "poor Arabs" that lived in the land, trekked into Lebanon carrying the keys to their homes. They should have thought about the consequences when they tried to wipe the Jews off the map of the Mid East.
Not having learned their lesson, they kept trying again and again, and each time they lost more land.
So pity not the "poor Palestinians". and pity not the Gazan's, who to a person vigorously supported HAMAS invasion of Israel. I can well imagine women sitting in front of their TV sets, watching the terrorists kidnap, rape, torture and murder Jewish women, children, disabled and elderly. Ulating and the kids cheering, now they are weeping as chickens come home to roost. (Did you know that HAMAS has ordered that kidnap victims that are too much trouble, like the disabled, young children, even teens be killed.)
Hell of a world, when Muslims have a license to kill, rape, murder, and the Jews are called war criminals for defending themselves and attacking their enemy.
Hermann Göring was tried and condemned to hang For bombing cities, but the commander of 8th AF, Curt Lemay (my old boss) and Air Marshall "Bomber" Harris weren't, neither was Stalin even reprimanded for his war crimes.
Either Israel has a right to exist or it doesn't. Where do you stand on that?
How can it exist when surrounded by enemies who are RELIGIOUSLY dedicated, per their sacred texts, to obliteration of the Jews, as evidenced in Art 7 of the HAMAS covenant
Iran is more oblique, It's preamble says: "The Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran sets forth the cultural, social, political, and economic institutions of Iranian society on the basis of Islamic principles and norms, which represent the earnest aspiration of the Islamic Ummah." The Islamic Ummah is the whole community of Muslims bound together by ties of religion.
And those ties that bind are the Quran and haddiths, including the biography of Mo by ibn Ishaq.
In case you aren't familiar with Islam. I am I have studied it, the Quran, haddiths and ibn Ishaq. I know so much that a Muslim on the intwerwebs said I was murtadd, an apostate, because anyone who knew as much as I, just had to be a Muslim.
Like a Christian saying if you read the Bible you have to be a Christian.
The haddith of al Bukhari quoted above and the Coveneant of HAMAS, calls for not just the eradication of Israel, but finishing the job that Hitler started.
You missed the part where Jews lived and were a majority in the old city of Jerusalem, taken by the Arab Legion in 1948. In 1948, 150,000 Jews. From 1948 to 1967, NO (0.00) Jews in the old city. In 1948 the Arab Legion was going to kill all Jews or chase them into the sea, and told Arab residents to leave. Those who stayed are Israeli citizens. Those that left, estimated at 700,000 were displaced by 900,000 Sephardic Jews, who lost their land and life in Moslem countries, SENT by the Arab Legion to die in an Arab Legion march to the sea. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_exodus_from_the_Muslim_world
I don't support Likud, or Netanyahu, but the answer is not a pogrom. It's not killing an Olympic team. It's not sending kids to die as suicide bombers. Its's not blowing up non military targets like delis and pizza shops. How about land for peace.
Did you oppose the 1979 deal? The Oslo Accords. Hamas and Islamic Jihad did. They oppose the existence of Israel. Death to all people named Barry Kaufman.
If the Arabs wanted to help, they would have developed the West Bank and Gaza. They have a history of support for indiscriminate terror against civilians, suicide bombings, and murder of Jews everywhere.
Let's talk about Jerusalem. Mark Twain, visited the city, and wrote of it, that it was a filthy, rat infested, run down dirty place. The Jews cleaned it up.
Call me racist, in this regard, but look what Arabs (Iran isn't Arab) have done or rather not done, to their own societies. Riyadh, the desalination plants, the oil wells, refineries, and Hiways, even their airports were built by foreign contractors and overseen by foreign engineers. They have to import foreigners to haul their garbage and clean their streets, and, if infidels, force them to live behind walls in compounds which they then desacralize, because infidels can not live on holy Muslim land.
Hi Boris. At it again. Always the shift to Democrats. Not so clever you are, most of Thom's readers take you at face value. I certainly don't. Oh I have my complaints about the Democratic party and the DNC, but as usual, you blush over Republicans, ignore Putin, and spread your"Democrats are war monger, propaganda"
First you champion the war criminal Putin, now the war criminals HAMAS
The world did not hesitate to carpet bomb Germany, fire bomb Dresden, and kill hundreds of thousands if not millions of "innocent civilians" .
Yet you and the idiot Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), and their guiding lights like Noam Chomsky, condemn both Ukraine and Israel for defending itself.
I once found myself in accord with the DSA, but no more, I am disgusted with the stupid self righteous immature idiots. I was disgusted with the Israeli right, the rabid Orthodox Jews, who invaded Muslim homes and enclaves, killing them and evicting them, but not all Israelis, Israel unlike Islamic communities and countries, is in fact a democracy, and until the current ultra right wing Orthodox cabinet, recognized women's rights, LGBT rights, and even the rights and vote of Arab citizens.
Tell me what the life expectancy of a Jew is in Gaza, or in any Muslim country. If your passport has an Israeli stamp, you can't enter the Kingdom.
How long will Barry Kaufman last, provided that is your real name, in Gaza?
And while at it, how about providing proof that Israel is supplying autocracies around the world with weapons.
We know that it did supply Iran, as part of Reagan's Iran Contra deal, because it needed the cocaine cash, that the CIA was making in "Operation Snowfall". They or some Israeli businessmen, lined up to sell the hangmen the rope. Iran then as now was dedicated to exterminating the Jews, as is HAMAS.
The preamble to the HAMAS covenant
"Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it."
Article 7. Blatant antisemitic sentiment, Quote is copied from the haddith of al Bukhari, sahih 2295 and 2296, book 56, haddith 193\
The Day of Judgment will not come about until Moslems fight Jews and kill them. Then, the Jews will hide behind rocks and trees, and the rocks and trees will cry out: 'O Moslem, there is a Jew hiding behind me, come and kill him."
This actually makes a two state solution impossible as it is a perpetual war of Muslims vs Jews, until all Jews are driven into the sea, or board planes for the American and European continents,
"when both political parties are working for special interests..."
1. This situation is caused by the enduring Duopoly (Democratic and Republican Parties).
2. The fundamental mechanism maintaining the Duopoly is the "spoiler effect". The voter who wishes to vote for someone outside the Duopoly is faced with this choice: Do I vote for the candidate I truly prefer, knowing this:
a. Third party or independent candidates DON'T WIN. (The only exception in Presidential elections was in 1860, when third party candidate Abraham Lincoln was able to win because the Democratic party had split in two over slavery. Lincoln defeated each of those separately but would have lost to a unified Democratic Party. The Republican Party then replaced the Whigs as one of the Duopoly parties.)
b. Voting for the third party or independent candidate draws votes away from the Duopoly candidate most like him or her. This is the toxic spoiler effect, and the stronger the non-Duopoly challenger is, the more toxic is his effect on the election. (There are wealthy people or organizations who will surreptitiously give financial support to such candidates, not because they want them to win, but to cause more votes to be taken from the Duopoly candidate most like them. This is deliberate weaponizing of the spoiler effect.)
c.) Consequently, the voter's rational choice is to grin and bear choosing the "lesser of two evils" so that his vote can make a difference, and so that he can avoid contributing to the toxic spoiler event.
d.) The operation of this rational choice is why the third party or independent candidate always loses, and the Duopoly is once again maintained.
3. The reason the voter is forced to make this choice is because we have a dysfunctional voting system that limits him to only one choice and allows a candidate to win with a mere plurality, not necessarily an absolute majority. The Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) system allows the voter to express his second, third, etc. choice. If there is no immediate clear majority-winner RCV facilitates an instant runoff, dropping the candidate with least votes from all ballots. On ballots where that “low man” candidate was first choice, the second choice is elevated to the first position, and the recount is made. The process is repeated if necessary until someone gathers a majority. This person is the winner. With RCV the voter has no reason not to make the candidate he truly prefers his first choice. If it was not a member of the Duopoly, he makes the “lesser of two evils” from the Duopoly his second choice, guaranteeing that he has not “wasted his vote” if his first-choice candidate is eliminated. THIS DESTROYS THE SPOILER EFFECT and the structural maintenance mechanism of the Duopoly disappears.
4. RCV would have at least two major effects:
a.) As mentioned, the maintenance mechanism of the Duopoly disappears and over time more and more third parties and independents will be elected. They will provide alternatives to any party captured by special interests.
b.) Winning an absolute majority when running against multiple opponents will require the candidate to be concerned about winning second choice, third choice, etc. votes to gather a winning majority through the run-off votes. This will require being moderate and conciliatory: FIREBRANDS LOSE!
5.) The current process of converting from the defective single-choice, plurality system to RCV is being done (slowly) at the state level—one state at a time. The Constitution gives Congress the authority to mandate RCV for all federal elections, which would immediately sweep away all the political dysfunction caused by the single choice, plurality voting system. (In order not to lose members in Congress it will be in the interest of the state parties to convert primary elections to RCV as well.)
6. The current Republican Party will have no part of this. We will need to wait until the Democratic Party has at least temporary control of the federal government. The Democrats will also be reluctant because of their Duopoly status, and because the spoiler effect gives incumbents an electoral advantage in elections. So it will be necessary for grass-root groups to organize to compel the Democrats to pass legislation mandating RCV. When the possibility of creating this legislation arises, nothing should be of higher priority than organizing and supporting the campaign to accomplish this.
Our area’s last independent newspaper was just bought by another Wall Street hedge fund. The right wingers now win all our media. Sinclair was just the beginning 😡
People who identify as conservative, most of whom are actually reactionaries are famous for pining for “the good old days” or for some idyllic past when men were men, life was simpler, and the world was more ordered and sane. Those days exist only in their childish imaginations, of course. So, it is extremely disconcerting and disturbing when the people we consider to be more rational, scientific, liberal, and progressive engage in that sort of foolishness.
My Aunt Martha (my favorite aunt) was a teacher and became a school principal in a small town and then in a consolidated school district in rural Pennsylvania in the 1940’s until about 1980. She was very strict and conventional and her participation as an evangelical in her local church was hardly distinguishable from her role as a teacher and principal. She presumably did not proselytize or actively practice and promote her faith and religion in school. Yet, there can be little doubt that her beliefs and attitudes and a degree of moralizing along with her “liberal” use of stern discipline were well known and exactly what virtually all the parents in that district believed to be appropriate. You didn’t sass Aunt Martha.
Across the US in that time period, schools in rural areas and schools in cities were essentially all very similar in that regard. The popular consensus was that kids were sent to school to learn and by god, they had better sit still and pay attention, or they would be dealt with harshly and would either shape up or ship out. Conservatives are still solidly convinced that those were wonderful schools, kids really learned, and everything turned out great.
That is such a pile of horse manure that I don’t know where to begin. There were studies then, just as there are studies now which revealed that many students were not learning much at all, many were not attending or dropping out, many were “socially promoted” and graduated without proven skills or knowledge, and literally millions hated the experience and said so, although most forgot how bad it was as soon as they left. Many learned to have self-contempt because they didn't fit in or succeed. The Coles Report which was known as “A Nation at Risk” was filed in 1986 as I recall. It did not yet reflect the changes implemented by Reagan and Bennett. The lack of STEM was only the tip of a monstrous iceberg. I was not alone in graduating from a highly rated school in upstate N.Y. with a “B+” average but only the most superficial and meager knowledge about our government, our constitution, our history, world history, good literature, or much of anything else. I was semi-literate and anti-intellectual.
We do not have “public education”. We do not have “public schools”. We do not have and have never had “academic independence”. We do not have “honest inquiry and intellectual integrity”. That is all mythology and propaganda. Our schools are state schools and they suck. It’s time to grow up and wake up and face reality. This infrastructure was well on its way to destruction generations ago. If you want to salvage it, get real and stop kidding yourself. The privatizers will happily exploit the phenomenal faults and flaws. We have authoritarian bureaucracies, not educational institutions, he said for the one-millionth time.
I attended public school in Phillie till I was 17, then spent the last year of public school in Louisiana, and have seen the propaganda stuffed down kids throats, both north and south.
I wasn't taught the true history of America, not until I took up the hobby of genetic genealogy, and then acquired books and info, you will not find in school libraries. most things people believe today, are frankly bullshit, smeared on a toast to placate the masses and keep them under control.
However, even piss poor education is better than none. I posted this before. There was no such thing as Universal public education until Horace Mann. My own family fell into illiteracy after 1767 when my 5th great grandfather died, and did not emerge into literacy until Horace Mann's idea was adopted by (now backward) Arkansas, with my grandfather obtaining at least an 8th grade education.
Without the ability to read and write, men were at a disadvantage women had no rights, except dower rights to property, even then should could not sell it, unless she married again, or a son took control (shades of Muslim countries).
Sans the ability to read or write, they were unable to do business, and were at the mercy of white collar crooks.
The movement now,follows on the heels of that asshole Milton Friedman, whose ideas killed Allende, Chileans and elevated Pinochet. he preached school vouchers, and what do that facilitate religious education and schools for the well to do.
Public education needs to be reformed, but that idea is countervailed by the question... how, without empowering the right wing. Reformation is a double edged sword. Look no further than Florida, Arkansas, Oklahoma and other MAGAt controlled states.
Free press: the FCC(Federal Communications Commission) announces that it’s launching the preliminary process of stripping FOX News of its broadcasting license in Philadelphia over its pushing of Trump’s Big Lie.
Other Fox stations could be investigated. Also, Nextstar, the largest television station owner in the United States, owning 197 television stations. Sinclair, the second-largest television station operator in the United States by number of stations (after Nexstar), owning or operating a total of 193 stations across the country in over 100 markets (covering 40% of American households) and is the largest owner of stations affiliated with Fox, NBC, CBS, ABC, MyNetworkTV, and The CW.
Broadcasters are responsible for selecting the broadcast material that airs on their stations, including advertisements. The FCC expects broadcasters to be responsible to the community they serve and act with reasonable care to ensure that advertisements aired on their stations are not false or misleading.
The FTC has primary responsibility for determining whether specific advertising is false or misleading, and for taking action against the sponsors of such material.
Also Dominion v Fox should be an object lesson for all broadcasters. Garland is not going to bring a criminal action for aiding, abetting and giving comfort to the insurrection, but I can't understand why the police officers and others damaged don't add Fox and others in civil cases.
In a civil case, the standard is a preponderance of the evidence. Was Fox (or others) responsible for defendants acting out and injuring the plaintiffs in the January 6 lawsuits?
Maybe Thom can ask Eric Swalwell and other plaintiffs.
The reason that cops, of all kinds, including Capitol Police, are by an large conservatives, and that means Trump Humpers. Officer Fallone who died, voted for Trump. The secret service, FBI and DOJ are conservatives, and I assume that in their minds, the real enemy are "liberals".
There are several sets of cases. https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/4263469-donald-trump-january-6-civil-lawsuit-judge-denies-delay/#:~:text=A%20federal%20judge%20on%20Wednesday,6%2C%202021%2C%20Capitol%20attack.
The estate of Brian Sicknick, a Capitol Police officer who died after responding to the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol, is suing two rioters involved in the attack and Trump for his alleged role in egging it on.
Fanone is alive. It's true he voted for Trump.
In addition, DC AG Racine filed a civil lawsuit against to hold the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, and their leaders and members accountable for their actions in planning and carrying out the January 6, 2021 attack and violating federal and District laws.
Sicknick also voted for Trump. Too many J6 personnel. failing memory can't hold them all. I probably remember Fallone because he said he would vote for Trump again.
Thanks for the correction. I have an excuse, my age and a craniotomy to remove a cancerous tumor (Oct 2017) that and the radiation has messed with my retention of stuff like names, and dates so I use google extensively. Should have used google this time.
I hope they go after Sinclair Broadcasting also.
What about Cox, communications. I use Dish for TV (no choice that or Direct TV, and no way Direct TV.
Cox cut their local channel feeds to Dish, because Dish would not be blackmailed into paying $1 billion for TV that was over the air (free) but needed to be relayed to a satellite, and evidently they acquired a spotbeam on a satellite.
The $1 billion cost will of course be passed on to consumers. like me.
Cox is willing to cut ad revenue to extort Dish.
Daniel, much appreciate you sharing the "Free Press" story about FCC process. I had not seen this and I will make sources including Medium and Democratic Underground, part of my regular reading and sharing. "Truth and lies, light and darkness, cannot co-exist". Fox has admitted in court they were telling known falsehoods regarding Trump's Big Lie of the 2020 election being stolen and the corruption of the Dominion voting machines. And yet this was never revealed to their rabid listeners, most of whom still believe Fox et al believes the Big Lie. Part of the Dominion settlement absolutely should have included significant required air-time countermanding their prior claims of a stolen election and admitting that they knew this was false information at the time they promoted these claims, as a requirement of them being able to continue broadcasting in the U.S. Now, finally, they may be held to account for their treasonous propaganda that has materially helped drive a major political rift between the American people. Hopefully this will be the beginning of a national cleansing of Fox propaganda across the country but better than losing their broadcast license would be the required counter propaganda message as noted above. This might actually serve to 'cleanse' the political ranks as the MAGA masses realize they have, and are, being systematically lied to by both rightwing media and the rightwing self serving politicians. Good riddance!
You mention 3 main pillars of a democratic republic; I think there are more than that. Two you don't mention, but which are fundamental, are a belief in the value of institutions (like Congress), and confidence that justice is for everyone, and can't be bought or manipulated. These two are front and center right now as they're both under attack, straight out of Putin's playbook (or the playbook of any autocrat, for that matter). The Repubs are destroying Americans confidence in Congress, and Trump continues to assault the justice system; he's doing to it what he did to the office of presidency, riddling it with doubts. I've said this before, but it bears saying again: "Catch us the foxes, the little foxes that spoil the vines, for our vines have tender grapes..." (Song of Solomon 2:15). That's your dilemma in the U.S. now - you've got Putin's henchmen riddling everything your people have cultivated for years, being destroyed by the "little foxes" of lies and doubts.
I ask that if you wish to insert your own opinions into one of Thom's articles Don't do it by starting with a negative, such as "Two you don't mention"
Personally I don't see how belief in the value of institutions like Congress, and confidence that justice is for everyone fits into the there core pillars" The three core pillars that hold up democratic republics are a vibrant and free press, trustworthy electoral systems, and academic independence..
Thom's three core pillars, are things (the press, electoral system and academic independence, where your two things are beliefs and values.., not pillars, a fourth pillar would be a fair and equal justice system. Lots of luck on that one, from the Hanging Judge of Ft Smith, Arkansas, Charles Parker to Aileen Cannon and Merrick Garland.
Belief, however is not a pillar of anything, except religions.
With absolutely no certainty.... I think this country has everything in place to step directly into fascism. The presence of the strongman leader waiting in the wings and the profusion of firearms in the hands of people who hold him dearer than the institutions of constitutional government could easily let it happen within the next few years. If he is the Republican nominee, I'd say it's a sure thing, whether or not he wins the 2024 election.
It is almost all about money, power and fame. The right is trying to steal everything and play God at the same time, thanks too unlimited greed or capitalism to make this possible. As Thom has said many times, the rich don't want to pay their fair share in taxes. The poor GOP incel males need to rape in order to lose their virginity also. Pollution and global overpopulation and global warming and the reality that the right wingers are just insane lying idiots, will destroy the human race to a mass of suffering lunatics, while their supernatural phony gods will not come back and save them. In their infinite wisdom, the GOP voters will make things go from bad to worse, fascism can never be stopped without a maximum wage. And humans cannot evolve if their needs are not met.
G.errymander
O.bstruct
P.unish
In 2001, Grover Norquist (lapdog of the Reagan kleptocracy) made an astoundingly candid and violent declaration of intent:
"I'm not in favor of abolishing the government. I just want to shrink it down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub."
This is just one example of why it is so important we believe people (or organizations) when they tell us who they are. The far right has been figuratively (and sometimes literally) shouting their agenda for decades. Currently, democracy seems more and more like an inmate on death row, without a court in the land willing to hear an appeal (thanks, Leonard Leo). Had we simply heeded the verbal intent of the executioner, perhaps things wouldn't be so dire - but here we are.
Democracy is the earth upon which our aspirations as a people are footed. Without it, none of our ideals can germinate, much less flourish. I believe we need to soberly reassess the health of, and restore our "virtual Earth" - democracy - as priority number one. I don't think many, if any of our better tendencies can take root in the current political ecosystem we inhabit. In short, I believe it is all hands on deck to save our democratic republic - and fast.
I remember Thom saying (sometime in the mid-2000's?) "movement politics" were historically the catalyst of change in society. But what if the movement needed is to preserve democracy itself - the ground upon which all other movements are made possible?
A "free press" has gone by the way of the dodo bird and "free speech" in the United States.
The operation was a success...but the patient died.
Our press, all but a handful of independents is owned by corporations, which control the (interlocking) boards of directors, who hire and fire CEO's. COO's, CFO's, who in turn hire and fire editors and producers. who know what they are suppose to do and what they are suppose to repress.
As for free speech, it is a myth. The 1st Amendment says nothing about free speech, all it says is that Congress shall pass no laws.
Your writing plus that of Timothy Snyder (The Road to Unfreedom) should be required reading in high school and college right now.
I’m so thankful for your voice as well as Heather Cox Richardson, Rachel Maddow, The Politics Girl Leigh McGowan, Michael Tyler Cohen, Robert Reich and so many more using whatever media possible to spread the truth.
And your words are being turned into action... many of us are calling, writing, voting and doing all we can to save Democracy.
Therefore help elect Progressives!!!
I read today that Axel Springer, who owns the largest media company in Europe is telling his journalists to cover the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with a proIsraeli bent. https://theintercept.com/2023/10/19/upday-news-gaza-israel-axel-springer/
While one of the members of the German Left Party is starting her own, which sounds very right wing in agenda. Sahra Wagenknecht is starting a populist party named after herself. Democracy is on shaky ground everywhere. https://www.euronews.com/2023/10/23/new-left-wing-german-political-party-headed-by-sahra-wagenknecht-could-draw-votes-from-far#:~:text=On%20Monday%2C%20Sahra%20Wagenknecht%20presented,east%20will%20follow%20next%20fall.
The Russian bots are very effective at getting people to join populist parties that are utterly supporting fascist ideas.
I use to support, financially, the Intercept, still get their news letters, but stopped when I discovered Noam Chomsky, the DSA, the Intercept and Democracy Now, obliquely supported Putin, and now they support HAMAS and Islamic terrorists. Democracy Now, has a number of Palestinian Americans on their staff.
Even hosts on MSNBC, Mehdi Hasan, Ayman Mohyeldin, and Ali Velshi were “quietly taken out of the anchor’s chair" following Hamas' operation on Israel.
I saw Ayman on TV yesterday, saying that HAMAS is not antisemitic, and his show distorts facts on the ground, and all of them pounced on the lie that Israel bombed a hospital.
As regards the Antisemitism of HAMAS
Article 7 of the HAMAS convention is quoted from the haddith of al Bukhari, sahih 1295 and 1296, Book 56, Haddith 193
"The Day of Judgment will not come about until Moslems fight Jews and kill them. Then, the Jews will hide behind rocks and trees, and the rocks and trees will cry out: 'O Moslem, there is a Jew hiding behind me, come and kill him."
Ayman had the balls to say, on TV, that HAMAS was not antisemitic.
The HAMAS charter says:
"The Islamic Resistance Movement is a distinguished Palestinian movement, whose allegiance is to Allah, and whose way of life is Islam. It strives to raise the banner of Allah over every inch of Palestine." (Article 6)
On the destruction of Israel:
"Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it." (Preamble)
My opinion is that Islamic Jihad was using the parking lot of the Al Ahli Arab Hospital, to launch rockets and there was a misfire, that killed the terrorists, and did some damage to the facade, but did not kill patients. And of course HAMAS lies, anyone believes their lies, is a sucker and fool, or a disinfo agent.
I first read about Axel Springer in Politico Europe, so the Intercept may have picked up from them. I read the Intercept from time to time depending on the article, and the Volt, the Lever, ProPublica, and other publications which I do not support all of the positions they take because I want to know what those positions are. I certainly don't support the positions of the NYT but must pay to read them, and the same with the WaPo. There is no publication where I support all of their positions. Reading is not the same as supporting.
Agreed Linda, reading is not supporting. I do not get all of those "publications" (what do you call digital publications anyway? But I do read what I get, like the Intercept. By support I mean donating cash.
NYT and WAPO have two departments, and often they seem at war. The editorial department which is conservative to right wing and the news department, which is a little better, but still has editors who squash news, or decide what is news. Like when NYT championed the invasion of Iraq.
What bothers me is the utter willingness to believe propaganda (so called news like the misfire of a rocket by Islamic Jihad at Al Ihla Arab Hospital in Gaza and attribute it to an Israeli Bomb, stuff like that
Hi William, I support a lot of the things I read, but not everything. The things that I skip more than I read I do not support. However, I should be supporting more of them.
I subject everything I read to scrutiny and try to use the one facility that I have not yet lost.
Critical reasoning.
Not bragging, though it might sound like it. I've been an avid reader since I picked up my first Alphabet book, as far as I can recall the age of 5, by age of 8 I was reading the Odyssey by Homer, the Bible by age 12, my tastes are eclectic, and aside for about 150 classics, hardly any are fiction. I certainly don't read fiction today.
By and large, even non fiction is actually stilted by peoples beliefs, so I approach everything with caution, and try to filter out fact from belief or opinion. One tool to use is who benefits (cuo bono), but I have my own gold mineof information, 84 years having to cipher the truth from the constant barrage of propaganda.
When I was young, and inexperienced, and even though well read, was still quite ignorant. I was an anti communist conservative, over time my conservatism expanded, beyond my anti communism shameful depths.
It was only a series of circumstances that resulted in my relocation, and found myself in company of old hippies, ex SDS, even weather underground, and as a shop foreman, I found myself enjoying, along with 10 other union offices, the compay of Angela Davis at a lunch.
The result is that I question everything, even those with whom I otherwise agree. For instance I stand for diversity, equality, civil and voting rights, and anti bigotry, but as of late I am sad to report that the Democratic Socialists of America, and many leftists, are solidly in lock step with Putin, Xi and the mid east terrorists, even secular Jews.
I may like to look at the Pie, I may even nibble, but I'll be damned if I will eat the whole thing, and am certainly not a joiner or entrapped, cajoled by those who try to use my sentiments, to steer me in an anti Democratic agenda. Such as the troll farms of Russia and China, and they don't have to be troll farms, there are legions of gullible non thinking people who are easily triggered to advance a cause inimical to their own best interests.
The right wing is an obvious example, but it appears that they have companions on the left.
It is not possible to have a democracy in the face of oligarchy and perpetual war. When both political parties are working for special interests, and when Democrats are appointing their presidential nominees which they have for several cycles now and continue to do, we should not fool ourselves. Biden continues to talk about Israel as a democracy while it's a theocracy and supplies autocracies around the world with weapons of war. We are not saving democracy, we are saving an imperialist oligarchy that dehumanizes large swaths of the population in favor of perceived geopolitical and economic advantage, and while it is easy to blame Republican malfeasance for our woes their hijinx are a symptom of the tribal nature of our politics and our loss of journalistic integrity, not to mention our sacrifice of humanity in the interest of electoral politics.
When I last looked we are US citizens and 30 of our countrymen were murdered and 11 more are unaccounted for most probably in Gaza. US policy has been land for peace since 1967. On paper, Israel has the same.
Why did the October 7 pogrom happen? Because Hamas wants to undermine peace negotiations between Israel and other Arab countries. Peace is Hamas' WATNA. .
Israeli Arabs have greater civil rights than citizens in any Arab country. They and Christians and others are free to worship. I personally do not like the Likud history or their philosophy, but they cannot dictate their philosophy. I am personally offended that ultraorthodox Jews are exempt from military service.
I've been advocating that Arabs form a peace corps, should go to Gaza. Save innocents. But the Arab leaders generally hate Hamas more than Israel.
According to estimates from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, more than 600,000 people have been killed since the start of the war. In its 2023 Global Appeal, the UN reported that more than 6.9 million are currently internally displaced, with more than 5.4 million living as refugees abroad. Where are the demonstrations at every Syrian embassy?
How many Arabs or Muslims must be murdered before there are global demonstrations against that regime?
Only Jews get this honor!
Hmmmm.. what's missing here is that Israel has been illegally occupying land AND committing crimes against humanity against its occupants for decades. That is the real issue. If Israel would retract its illegal settlements and offer a land compromise, as well as returning the hundreds if not thousands of Palestinians children and men it holds prisoner without cause, that would be a major step towards peace in the region. Leaders of Hamas who have been ostracized by American press during their interviews have repeatedly stated they want return of the prisoners and their land, all the while the terrorist government of Israel is portrayed as the victim and Biden hugs the Trump of Israel Netanyahu. Let's be clear--it is Isreal who stole the land of the Palestinian people and then punished them for it. Israel is the oppressor, they have all the power, the Palestinians are the oppressed, they have none. The US does the dirty work of Israel as proven by the first legislation passed under Trump's Congress, anti-free speech legislation favoring Israel in this country some label as a democracy. https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/04/23/us-states-use-anti-boycott-laws-punish-responsible-businesses
Get your facts straight, before you spread lies and disinfo
Theodore Herzl, the father of Zionism, and his group of volunteers, purchased land from the Arabs, the Bedouins that call themselves Palestine after WWI, they turned a barren land, into green, constructed homes, Kibbutz, and the land prospered.
Their Muslim neighbors looked upon their success with envy and anger. Anger because the Jews showed the paucity and stagnation of their own culture.
So in 1948, their Arab neighbors launched a war to drive out the Jews, the Brits when they left the area, disabled their planes and tanks, and destroyed their ammunition.
The Israel's were able with ingenuity, repair the disabled planes and equipment and ordered lipstick tubes with they re-manufactured into bullets.
And they drove out the Muslim invaders, and in so doing took the land, (to the victor goes the spoils, and they needed the land to provide a barrier against their neighbors, the "poor Arabs" that lived in the land, trekked into Lebanon carrying the keys to their homes. They should have thought about the consequences when they tried to wipe the Jews off the map of the Mid East.
Not having learned their lesson, they kept trying again and again, and each time they lost more land.
So pity not the "poor Palestinians". and pity not the Gazan's, who to a person vigorously supported HAMAS invasion of Israel. I can well imagine women sitting in front of their TV sets, watching the terrorists kidnap, rape, torture and murder Jewish women, children, disabled and elderly. Ulating and the kids cheering, now they are weeping as chickens come home to roost. (Did you know that HAMAS has ordered that kidnap victims that are too much trouble, like the disabled, young children, even teens be killed.)
Hell of a world, when Muslims have a license to kill, rape, murder, and the Jews are called war criminals for defending themselves and attacking their enemy.
Hermann Göring was tried and condemned to hang For bombing cities, but the commander of 8th AF, Curt Lemay (my old boss) and Air Marshall "Bomber" Harris weren't, neither was Stalin even reprimanded for his war crimes.
Either Israel has a right to exist or it doesn't. Where do you stand on that?
How can it exist when surrounded by enemies who are RELIGIOUSLY dedicated, per their sacred texts, to obliteration of the Jews, as evidenced in Art 7 of the HAMAS covenant
Iran is more oblique, It's preamble says: "The Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran sets forth the cultural, social, political, and economic institutions of Iranian society on the basis of Islamic principles and norms, which represent the earnest aspiration of the Islamic Ummah." The Islamic Ummah is the whole community of Muslims bound together by ties of religion.
And those ties that bind are the Quran and haddiths, including the biography of Mo by ibn Ishaq.
In case you aren't familiar with Islam. I am I have studied it, the Quran, haddiths and ibn Ishaq. I know so much that a Muslim on the intwerwebs said I was murtadd, an apostate, because anyone who knew as much as I, just had to be a Muslim.
Like a Christian saying if you read the Bible you have to be a Christian.
The haddith of al Bukhari quoted above and the Coveneant of HAMAS, calls for not just the eradication of Israel, but finishing the job that Hitler started.
You missed the part where Jews lived and were a majority in the old city of Jerusalem, taken by the Arab Legion in 1948. In 1948, 150,000 Jews. From 1948 to 1967, NO (0.00) Jews in the old city. In 1948 the Arab Legion was going to kill all Jews or chase them into the sea, and told Arab residents to leave. Those who stayed are Israeli citizens. Those that left, estimated at 700,000 were displaced by 900,000 Sephardic Jews, who lost their land and life in Moslem countries, SENT by the Arab Legion to die in an Arab Legion march to the sea. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_exodus_from_the_Muslim_world
I don't support Likud, or Netanyahu, but the answer is not a pogrom. It's not killing an Olympic team. It's not sending kids to die as suicide bombers. Its's not blowing up non military targets like delis and pizza shops. How about land for peace.
Did you oppose the 1979 deal? The Oslo Accords. Hamas and Islamic Jihad did. They oppose the existence of Israel. Death to all people named Barry Kaufman.
If the Arabs wanted to help, they would have developed the West Bank and Gaza. They have a history of support for indiscriminate terror against civilians, suicide bombings, and murder of Jews everywhere.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_for_peace#:~:text=The%20name%20Land%20for%20Peace,of%20belligerency%20(Making%20Peace).
Let's talk about Jerusalem. Mark Twain, visited the city, and wrote of it, that it was a filthy, rat infested, run down dirty place. The Jews cleaned it up.
Call me racist, in this regard, but look what Arabs (Iran isn't Arab) have done or rather not done, to their own societies. Riyadh, the desalination plants, the oil wells, refineries, and Hiways, even their airports were built by foreign contractors and overseen by foreign engineers. They have to import foreigners to haul their garbage and clean their streets, and, if infidels, force them to live behind walls in compounds which they then desacralize, because infidels can not live on holy Muslim land.
Hi Boris. At it again. Always the shift to Democrats. Not so clever you are, most of Thom's readers take you at face value. I certainly don't. Oh I have my complaints about the Democratic party and the DNC, but as usual, you blush over Republicans, ignore Putin, and spread your"Democrats are war monger, propaganda"
First you champion the war criminal Putin, now the war criminals HAMAS
The world did not hesitate to carpet bomb Germany, fire bomb Dresden, and kill hundreds of thousands if not millions of "innocent civilians" .
Yet you and the idiot Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), and their guiding lights like Noam Chomsky, condemn both Ukraine and Israel for defending itself.
I once found myself in accord with the DSA, but no more, I am disgusted with the stupid self righteous immature idiots. I was disgusted with the Israeli right, the rabid Orthodox Jews, who invaded Muslim homes and enclaves, killing them and evicting them, but not all Israelis, Israel unlike Islamic communities and countries, is in fact a democracy, and until the current ultra right wing Orthodox cabinet, recognized women's rights, LGBT rights, and even the rights and vote of Arab citizens.
Tell me what the life expectancy of a Jew is in Gaza, or in any Muslim country. If your passport has an Israeli stamp, you can't enter the Kingdom.
How long will Barry Kaufman last, provided that is your real name, in Gaza?
And while at it, how about providing proof that Israel is supplying autocracies around the world with weapons.
We know that it did supply Iran, as part of Reagan's Iran Contra deal, because it needed the cocaine cash, that the CIA was making in "Operation Snowfall". They or some Israeli businessmen, lined up to sell the hangmen the rope. Iran then as now was dedicated to exterminating the Jews, as is HAMAS.
The preamble to the HAMAS covenant
"Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it."
Article 7. Blatant antisemitic sentiment, Quote is copied from the haddith of al Bukhari, sahih 2295 and 2296, book 56, haddith 193\
The Day of Judgment will not come about until Moslems fight Jews and kill them. Then, the Jews will hide behind rocks and trees, and the rocks and trees will cry out: 'O Moslem, there is a Jew hiding behind me, come and kill him."
This actually makes a two state solution impossible as it is a perpetual war of Muslims vs Jews, until all Jews are driven into the sea, or board planes for the American and European continents,
"when both political parties are working for special interests..."
1. This situation is caused by the enduring Duopoly (Democratic and Republican Parties).
2. The fundamental mechanism maintaining the Duopoly is the "spoiler effect". The voter who wishes to vote for someone outside the Duopoly is faced with this choice: Do I vote for the candidate I truly prefer, knowing this:
a. Third party or independent candidates DON'T WIN. (The only exception in Presidential elections was in 1860, when third party candidate Abraham Lincoln was able to win because the Democratic party had split in two over slavery. Lincoln defeated each of those separately but would have lost to a unified Democratic Party. The Republican Party then replaced the Whigs as one of the Duopoly parties.)
b. Voting for the third party or independent candidate draws votes away from the Duopoly candidate most like him or her. This is the toxic spoiler effect, and the stronger the non-Duopoly challenger is, the more toxic is his effect on the election. (There are wealthy people or organizations who will surreptitiously give financial support to such candidates, not because they want them to win, but to cause more votes to be taken from the Duopoly candidate most like them. This is deliberate weaponizing of the spoiler effect.)
c.) Consequently, the voter's rational choice is to grin and bear choosing the "lesser of two evils" so that his vote can make a difference, and so that he can avoid contributing to the toxic spoiler event.
d.) The operation of this rational choice is why the third party or independent candidate always loses, and the Duopoly is once again maintained.
3. The reason the voter is forced to make this choice is because we have a dysfunctional voting system that limits him to only one choice and allows a candidate to win with a mere plurality, not necessarily an absolute majority. The Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) system allows the voter to express his second, third, etc. choice. If there is no immediate clear majority-winner RCV facilitates an instant runoff, dropping the candidate with least votes from all ballots. On ballots where that “low man” candidate was first choice, the second choice is elevated to the first position, and the recount is made. The process is repeated if necessary until someone gathers a majority. This person is the winner. With RCV the voter has no reason not to make the candidate he truly prefers his first choice. If it was not a member of the Duopoly, he makes the “lesser of two evils” from the Duopoly his second choice, guaranteeing that he has not “wasted his vote” if his first-choice candidate is eliminated. THIS DESTROYS THE SPOILER EFFECT and the structural maintenance mechanism of the Duopoly disappears.
4. RCV would have at least two major effects:
a.) As mentioned, the maintenance mechanism of the Duopoly disappears and over time more and more third parties and independents will be elected. They will provide alternatives to any party captured by special interests.
b.) Winning an absolute majority when running against multiple opponents will require the candidate to be concerned about winning second choice, third choice, etc. votes to gather a winning majority through the run-off votes. This will require being moderate and conciliatory: FIREBRANDS LOSE!
5.) The current process of converting from the defective single-choice, plurality system to RCV is being done (slowly) at the state level—one state at a time. The Constitution gives Congress the authority to mandate RCV for all federal elections, which would immediately sweep away all the political dysfunction caused by the single choice, plurality voting system. (In order not to lose members in Congress it will be in the interest of the state parties to convert primary elections to RCV as well.)
6. The current Republican Party will have no part of this. We will need to wait until the Democratic Party has at least temporary control of the federal government. The Democrats will also be reluctant because of their Duopoly status, and because the spoiler effect gives incumbents an electoral advantage in elections. So it will be necessary for grass-root groups to organize to compel the Democrats to pass legislation mandating RCV. When the possibility of creating this legislation arises, nothing should be of higher priority than organizing and supporting the campaign to accomplish this.
Thank you
Our area’s last independent newspaper was just bought by another Wall Street hedge fund. The right wingers now win all our media. Sinclair was just the beginning 😡
People who identify as conservative, most of whom are actually reactionaries are famous for pining for “the good old days” or for some idyllic past when men were men, life was simpler, and the world was more ordered and sane. Those days exist only in their childish imaginations, of course. So, it is extremely disconcerting and disturbing when the people we consider to be more rational, scientific, liberal, and progressive engage in that sort of foolishness.
My Aunt Martha (my favorite aunt) was a teacher and became a school principal in a small town and then in a consolidated school district in rural Pennsylvania in the 1940’s until about 1980. She was very strict and conventional and her participation as an evangelical in her local church was hardly distinguishable from her role as a teacher and principal. She presumably did not proselytize or actively practice and promote her faith and religion in school. Yet, there can be little doubt that her beliefs and attitudes and a degree of moralizing along with her “liberal” use of stern discipline were well known and exactly what virtually all the parents in that district believed to be appropriate. You didn’t sass Aunt Martha.
Across the US in that time period, schools in rural areas and schools in cities were essentially all very similar in that regard. The popular consensus was that kids were sent to school to learn and by god, they had better sit still and pay attention, or they would be dealt with harshly and would either shape up or ship out. Conservatives are still solidly convinced that those were wonderful schools, kids really learned, and everything turned out great.
That is such a pile of horse manure that I don’t know where to begin. There were studies then, just as there are studies now which revealed that many students were not learning much at all, many were not attending or dropping out, many were “socially promoted” and graduated without proven skills or knowledge, and literally millions hated the experience and said so, although most forgot how bad it was as soon as they left. Many learned to have self-contempt because they didn't fit in or succeed. The Coles Report which was known as “A Nation at Risk” was filed in 1986 as I recall. It did not yet reflect the changes implemented by Reagan and Bennett. The lack of STEM was only the tip of a monstrous iceberg. I was not alone in graduating from a highly rated school in upstate N.Y. with a “B+” average but only the most superficial and meager knowledge about our government, our constitution, our history, world history, good literature, or much of anything else. I was semi-literate and anti-intellectual.
We do not have “public education”. We do not have “public schools”. We do not have and have never had “academic independence”. We do not have “honest inquiry and intellectual integrity”. That is all mythology and propaganda. Our schools are state schools and they suck. It’s time to grow up and wake up and face reality. This infrastructure was well on its way to destruction generations ago. If you want to salvage it, get real and stop kidding yourself. The privatizers will happily exploit the phenomenal faults and flaws. We have authoritarian bureaucracies, not educational institutions, he said for the one-millionth time.
I attended public school in Phillie till I was 17, then spent the last year of public school in Louisiana, and have seen the propaganda stuffed down kids throats, both north and south.
I wasn't taught the true history of America, not until I took up the hobby of genetic genealogy, and then acquired books and info, you will not find in school libraries. most things people believe today, are frankly bullshit, smeared on a toast to placate the masses and keep them under control.
However, even piss poor education is better than none. I posted this before. There was no such thing as Universal public education until Horace Mann. My own family fell into illiteracy after 1767 when my 5th great grandfather died, and did not emerge into literacy until Horace Mann's idea was adopted by (now backward) Arkansas, with my grandfather obtaining at least an 8th grade education.
Without the ability to read and write, men were at a disadvantage women had no rights, except dower rights to property, even then should could not sell it, unless she married again, or a son took control (shades of Muslim countries).
Sans the ability to read or write, they were unable to do business, and were at the mercy of white collar crooks.
The movement now,follows on the heels of that asshole Milton Friedman, whose ideas killed Allende, Chileans and elevated Pinochet. he preached school vouchers, and what do that facilitate religious education and schools for the well to do.
Public education needs to be reformed, but that idea is countervailed by the question... how, without empowering the right wing. Reformation is a double edged sword. Look no further than Florida, Arkansas, Oklahoma and other MAGAt controlled states.